Copernical Team
LeoLabs accelerates radar coverage in Europe with commissioning of the Azores Space Radar
LeoLabs, the leading commercial provider of Space Domain Awareness (SDA) services and low Earth orbit (LEO) mapping, has announced the commissioning of the LeoLabs Azores Space Radar. This radar site, located on Santa Maria Island in the Azores, Portugal adds critical coverage in Europe and supports regional and national commitments to space safety, security, and sustainability.
The Azores site Sidus to launch LizzieSat with Edge AI, hyperspectral and multispectral imaging
Sidus Space (NASDAQ: SIDU) will launch industry leading hyperspectral and multispectral imaging and Edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) in its LizzieSat satellite on SpaceX Transporter missions beginning in 2024. LizzieSat's hyperspectral and multispectral imaging capability will be provided by the Owl 1280 and Hawk 1920 HD cameras made by Raptor Photonics. Sidus is building its space-based infras Rwanda leaps forward in its journey to build a robust and vibrant space innovation ecosystem
The Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (RIIS) and the Rwanda Space Agency (RSA) recently hosted a multi-stakeholder workshop in Rwanda in support of the space agency's drive to harness emerging space opportunities and support Rwanda's socio-economic development goals by building a vibrant and robust space innovation ecosystem.
The project to develop this ecosystem is fund What made the brightest cosmic explosion of all time so exceptional?
Few cosmic explosions have attracted as much attention from space scientists as the one recorded on October 22 last year and aptly named the Brightest of All Time (BOAT). The event, produced by the collapse of a highly massive star and the subsequent birth of a black hole, was witnessed as an immensely bright flash of gamma rays followed by a slow-fading afterglow of light across frequencies. How activity in outer space will affect regional inequalities in the future
Science fiction has always been a tool for processing life on Earth. Norwegian sci-fi expert Karl Kristian Swane Bambini has said that the space-bound genre is well placed to "interrogate and reimagine real-world economic disparities".
He gives the examples of, among other things, the 2013 blockbuster Elysium, wherein healthcare is only accessible off-world, to people with spaceships, and African space tech? Don't rule it out, says Nigeria's startup king
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji might not have the personal wealth of Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, but his level of success as an African entrepreneur bears comparison with any Silicon Valley tech titan.
While still in his twenties, the Nigerian co-founded two "unicorns", an industry term for companies that achieve a valuation of more than $1 billion.
By most counts, Africa has produced only seven un Cheops explores mysterious warm mini-Neptunes
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ESA’s exoplanet mission Cheops confirmed the existence of four warm exoplanets orbiting four stars in our Milky Way. These exoplanets have sizes between Earth and Neptune and orbit their stars closer than Mercury our Sun.
These so-called mini-Neptunes are unlike any planet in our Solar System and provide a ‘missing link’ between Earth-like and Neptune-like planets that is not yet understood. Mini-Neptunes are among the most common types of exoplanets known, and astronomers are starting to find more and more orbiting bright stars.
Mini-Neptunes are mysterious objects. They are smaller, cooler, and more difficult to find than the so-called hot
25 years of Copernicus
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25 years ago, Copernicus set out to transform the way we see our planet. It is the largest environmental monitoring programme in the world. Learn more about the Copernicus programme and the Sentinel satellite missions developed by ESA.
Space colonies: How artificial photosynthesis may be key to sustained life beyond Earth
Life on Earth owes its existence to photosynthesis—a process which is 2.3 billion years old. This immensely fascinating (and still not fully understood) reaction enables plants and other organisms to harvest sunlight, water and carbon dioxide while converting them into oxygen and energy in the form of sugar.
Photosynthesis is such an integral part of Earth's functioning that we pretty much take it for granted. But as we look beyond our own planet for places to explore and settle on, it is obvious how rare and valuable the process is.
As my colleagues and I have investigated in a new paper, published in Nature Communications, recent advances in making artificial photosynthesis may well be key to surviving and thriving away from Earth.
The human need for oxygen makes space travel tricky. Fuel constraints limit the amount of oxygen we can carry with us, particularly if we want to do long-haul journeys to the moon and Mars. A one-way trip to Mars usually takes on the order of two years, meaning we can't easily send supplies of resources from Earth.
Airbus develops a system to extract oxygen and metal from lunar regolith
New technologies using material found in space are constantly popping up, sometimes from smaller companies and sometimes from larger ones. Back in 2020, one of the largest companies of them all announced a technology that could have significant implications for the future lunar exploration missions planned over the next ten years. The European aerospace giant Airbus developed the Regolith to OXYgen and Metals Conversion (ROXY) system.
ROXY creates not only oxygen, a resource vital for humans to breathe and also for rocket fuel, but also makes metals that can be used to manufacture tools, equipment, and even structures on the Moon. And it does it simply from the regolith that is present everywhere on the lunar surface.
